Some old Photos for your enjoyment

[Bret4207]

One thing I learned, even after 20 year plus of dealing with criminals, is that there are way more people than you'd believe that will lie, manipulate or stretch the truth to get what they want. Makes me untrusting of people, yet I want to trust them. Probably an ancient paradox.

 

[Pistolero]

One of the hazards of police work is that pretty much all the folks you "run into" are low-life types and criminal,
not a fair distribution of normal folks worked in. I think it makes it hard on the officers, and easy to come away
with the idea that EVERYBODY is a low down lying scum. A fair number certainly are, but the police are
called in to deal with them, so they are seen far more often than their actual percentage in the population,
I think.
Ordinary folks tend to wind up the other way, avoiding the bad folks, not seeing too many of them and probably
having way too sunny an outlook on human nature because of it. The answer is somewhere in between.

But, I could be wrong. I have a number of LEO friends and we talk a lot. They do have stories, and they have
opened my eyes a good bit.

Bill

 

[Bret4207]

Actually Bill, most of the people I ran into were average, everyday solid citizens. They were the complainants reproting a crime or the guy pushing the speed limit to get home for supper. The actual criminal low life types were maybe 20-25%, but they did tend to stick in your mind more. But even the solid citizen type wants the story told HIS/HER way. A little stretch here, a pertinent fact avoided there, massaging someones reaction over that way and before you know it Joe Average has kind of put himself into a pickle without really intending to out and out lie. That's all I'm saying. I suppose it's human nature at work, and it doesn't necessarily make the person doing the stretching a bad person or even a slightly untrustworthy one. It just means you have to have your eyes open going into things. It's when you forget to do that that it turns around and bites you in the backside. I've seen real scum sucking low lifes do admirable things and respected pillars of the community do things that would make your skin crawl. People are what they are.

 

[Pistolero]

Glad to hear it, Bret. Most of my LEO friends are city cops, and they frequently were talking about the
knuckleheads that they ran into. A neighbor worked fraud and bunco, continuously dealing with prefessiona;
liars who had been part of a team kiting checks and stuff.

Bill

 

[Bret4207]

We have professional liars up here in the sticks too. They tend to have "bad backs" or other ailments that allow then to enjoy a rather cushy lifestyle at the expense of others. Funny how the guy with the back so bad he can't possibly work can play in the dart league every weekend, ride a snowmobile 150 miles on a poker run and jump waves on his jet ski all summer long. And you can't touch them!

 

[GRMPS]

Annie Oakley

 

[GRMPS]

Billy the Kid

 

[GRMPS]

Buffalo Bill’s troupe, pictured are John Nelson and John Burke with some cowboys and a Sioux Native American. He might actually be Charging Thunder

 

[Pistolero]

The Billy the Kid is a tintype, mirror image. The givaway is in the whole shot, the loading gate on
the 73 Win is on the wrong side. Of course, he could have had a mirror image Win 73 custom
built.....or it could be a tintype.
I would have loved to have seen Oakley shoot, although apparently a lot of her work was aerials with
rifles.....except that they were special smoothbores with shot cartridges. She really wasn't trying to
cheat as much as not dropping bullets in cities, the shot has short range, as we all know.

 

[Ian]

Billy's holster rig buckle is backwards too.

 

[Bret4207]

I never , ever, even began to understand the hero worship that adorns Bill the Kid. That type of thing continues today, be it the Manson family, outlaw biker types, gangs, etc. Just don't get it.

 

[462]

I'm not an historian, nor a hero worshipper (don't believe in them) but have read a lot about the Old West including the Lincoln County War. While visiting my reloading mentor and gun purchasing enabler, in Roswell, New Mexico, he took my wife and I up to the town of Lincoln and the surrounding area. Many of the original buildings remain, with the courthouse being the most famous. Just as it was we visited the site of the Battle of the Little Bighorn, visiting Lincoln puts a new perspective on the subject and its history.

Hollywood, as is its wont and seemingly only purpose, distorts history and reality, and has done so concerning Billy the Kid. He was a thief and murderer and deserved his hanging sentence, or his ultimate fate via Pat Garrett.

Historical side note: Up the road several miles, from Lincoln, is the area where Smokey Bear was found, and his body is buried in the nearby town of Capitan.

 

[L Ross]

I live just a few miles away from Boaz, WI. There is a historical marker there for Richard Brewer. Richard ended up as a foreman on John Tunstall's ranch and after Tunstall was killed, sometimes lead the posse that was deputized to capture the killers. Supposedly Billy the Kid, Charlie Beaudre, Jose Chavez and others who hung out with Billy were all part of those Regulators. Brewer was shot through the head at Blazer's Mills, New Mexico by Buckshot Roberts who also died in the shoot out. Richard was 28 years old when he died.
When Sue and I shot cowboy action our personas were Deputy Duke Brewer, (I claimed Richard as a brother), and since Susan means lily, and my wife brews, she was Lily Rae Brewer.
I miss the cowboy shoots, but couldn't stand the SASS mentality, the lack of adherence to historical reality, and there were no organized shoots closer than 90 miles away.

 

[JWFilips]

Harvest Time!

November 1941. "Mrs. Buck Grant, Farm Security Administration client, with her canned goods. Near Woodville, Georgia." Photo by Jack Delano.

 

[popper]

The 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair: Photos

In April 1904, St. Louis opened its doors to the world, welcoming millions to see the fascinating buildings and exhibits of art, technology, and history on display at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition.

www.theatlantic.com

Just got back from Dallas PD retired LE, 22yrs. funeral. Cancer is a beast. He was a real talker/storyteller kinda guy. Heard the story for the first time today, signed up at 19 (special permission to carry), long time ago he was investigating an armed robbery, saw a guy with a gun and shot - broke the mirror. Got the nickname 'trigger'. 20 something cycle honor guard to the grave site.

 

[JWFilips]

Another interesting one from Shorpy.com:
Modern Forest: 1941
January 1941. "Stacks at the Pittsburgh Crucible Steel Company in Midland, Pennsylvania." Medium format negative by Jack Delano for the Farm Security Administration.

 

[JWFilips]

And another:
Homestead, Pennsylvania, circa 1910. "Homestead Steel Works, Carnegie Steel Co." Lots of interesting details in this humongous panorama made from four 8x10 inch glass negatives. Detroit Publishing Company

 

[L Ross]

One of my rail road rails I use to put my silhouettes on is a 30' piece of 132 lb. rail is marked Carnegie Steel 1919.

 

[popper]

Just saw an ad from 1920s, food to 'plump you up' for gals. Haaa.

 

[Walks]

I've a couple of those 1930's hunting pictures from My Dad. Lived hand to mouth then. If you missed a shot you didn't eat.